President Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors. This panel reviews academy affairs such as morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, and financial matters. As of Tuesday, March 10, her name appeared on the academy’s website among the presidential appointees.
The academy states that the board is formed under federal law. It evaluates “the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, financial affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the Academy which the Board decides to consider.”
The board includes members appointed by the president and Congress, with the president selecting six members. The current list features Erika Kirk alongside Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Dan Clark, Doug Nikolai, and Dina Powell, with one presidential seat still open.
Kirk’s appointment fills a position once held by her late husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Trump appointed Charlie Kirk to the board in March 2025. He was killed on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, an act described by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox as a political assassination.
After her husband’s death, Erika Kirk took over as CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA and has taken center stage, following her late husband’s principles.
NEW MISSION: President Trump appoints Erika Kirk to serve on the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors — taking the position her late husband, Charlie, was slated to hold before he was assassinated in September.
Now Erika joins the panel that oversees morale, discipline,… pic.twitter.com/4m4o3j1Xia
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 10, 2026
Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, the board chair and an academy graduate, supported the appointment. “Erika is the right person to fill Charlie’s place on the Board and continue his work of inspiring the next generation of service members and advancing the Academy,” Pfluger said, as reported by Fox News Digital and other outlets. “I look forward to working alongside her to carry on Charlie’s legacy.”
This appointment adds another Trump supporter to the advisory board for one of the nation’s military service academies. In February 2025, Trump moved to dismiss members of the boards of visitors at military academies, stating he wanted to reshape them to counter what he called “woke” ideology in officer training. He later appointed a new group of allies and conservative figures to the academy boards, including Charlie Kirk on the Air Force Academy panel before his death.
The most recent meeting of the Air Force Academy board took place on Dec. 8, 2025, according to the academy’s website. The panel consists of lawmakers and other appointees selected by the White House and congressional leaders from both parties.
Erika Kirk also returned to public attention in October 2025 when Trump awarded Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. She accepted the award on her husband’s behalf during the ceremony.
She also attended the State of the Union address, in which the president paid another tribute to Charlie, calling him a “great friend” and a “great guy.” Trump also said he was “martyred for his beliefs.”
Her selection for the Air Force Academy board formally involves her in advising on academy oversight just months after she stepped into a leadership role at Turning Point USA. This keeps the Kirk family connected to a board seat that Trump had originally intended for Charlie Kirk.
